Three Ways to Make Your Parking Lot’s Landscaping Last Longer

Shopping center parking lots face a lot of damage. Any grassy medians will be walked across, plants will be trampled, and rainstorms cause a mess that needs immediate maintenance. While lots of traffic is still good for your and your tenants’ business, it can still be a headache to deal with the constant maintenance. If your lot is undergoing landscaping renovations or you’re considering adding new plants, here are some ideas for hardy vegetation:

• Use elm trees for shade and soil retention. Trees are good for almost any landscaping because they lock the soil in place and make the area look more inviting. But you have to be careful when choosing trees for a parking lot because they face a lot of exposure to sunlight, chemicals, and foot traffic. Elm and other hardy trees do well with intermittent drought and salt, so they can stay healthy no matter what season it is.

• Use evergreen hedges near walkways. Grass is vulnerable to wear and tear, so if your business needs well-maintained greenways through the parking lot, choose hedges instead. Not only can they help direct traffic and provide a passive barrier that people won’t walk through, they grab onto the soil and don’t need much water. They can also help you divide up the parking lot if you have a shopping center with several boutique shops and want customers to park only in designated areas.

• Hire a landscaping company to manage the irrigation. Dying plants say something about an area. While customers might not directly take note of withering plants or scruffy hedges, your tenants will. Prospective franchises might choose other lots, either because of their branding style or because overgrown hedges are a parking lot hazard. A landscaping company can maintain not only the irrigation but the pruning and plant maintenance, too.